okay revised version here. Needs to be re-revised but I need to let it sit and see it with fresh eyes.
Guide To Making A Story Mission Arc
These are rules to making a story arc. These rules provide the framework not the story, not the text, not the details.
They are hard to follow I do not follow all of them in my arc, and I have the complaints to show for it. You can see these as rules, guidelines, or a challenge to violate while making a great arc. The choice is yours, the arc is yours.
Rule #1
The end result that comes out on a players screen is what matters, not the effort you put in, not the ideas you had. You have to do what is possible in MA. A great idea that does not work in practice makes a bad arc. If you have great ideas that the technology does not support, note it for later when the tech improves.
Rule #2
A great arc is great in every way. Arcs have many elements plot, intro text, mobs, maps, objectives. Being a great arc means being great in every way, not just doing one element well and having the rest be average. What makes player arcs potentially better than dev arcs is the time you can spend to attend to every detail. If your arc is at 100% size and you have to cut details cut something big (like a custom critter) so you can fill in the other details better. 14 amazing custom critters standing silently on a map is not as good an arc as 13 amazing critters brought to life with objectives, animations, descriptions, clues, etc.
Rule #3
Make your arc what it is supposed to be. It is tempting to always have 5 missions, or to have large maps. It is tempting to make everything as big and complicated as it can be which is fine if thats what your arc is supposed to be. But the best arcs are edited down to the essentials missions are not longer than needed to tell the story, important elements are not hidden by clutter, exotic maps are not used where they do not make sense.
Title: The Most Important Element
- There are thousands of arcs. Your arc will most likely be selected based on its title. If no one chooses to play your arc nothing else matters. Your title needs to make your arc seem interesting and special. A specific name makes your arc seem less generic Save Kings Row or Dr. Deaths Plot is better than Save Innocents or An Evil Plot. An active verb makes the arc sound more exciting, Aliens Invade vs Aliens. Be shameless with the title, if Bloody Zombies Eating Catgirls gets more plays then Zombies Invade go with what works.
Plot: Beginning, Middle, End
- The Beginning (and whole thing) Must Be Worthy
If you are sending a superhero on a mission the intro better explain why it is a mission worthy of a superhero. Starting small with investigate a warehouse is lame. Players want to feel important, not like they have to prove their worth to every contact or that they are the night watchman. Instead say A police officer was sent to investigate a warehouse and has not returned, please go investigate at least it seems a bit threatening.
- The Hero Must Have A Real Motive
Heroes should not be expected to do missions because they have nothing better to do. Writing an arc where they deliver flowers or do other menial tasks is dumb unless it is a spoof and thats the point. Some players will go along with an arc just to see what happens but a good arc will find a real reason to motivate them. A Skull wants help romancing a Hellion boss make the Skull promise information, or to reform, or some reward if the hero helps out. Find a motive and make it clear to the player.
- Do Not Repeat a Mission
If the purpose of mission 1 is to destroy a mind control device, do not have mission 2 be to destroy another mind control device (same with finding out information, preventing a kidnapping, etc). Repeating the same purpose in another mission feels like filler, even with a cool map. Maybe another hero or the police took out the other devices. Or maybe there was only one (you are writing the arc, you make it fit your needs). The plot needs to develop thats how a story works.
- Resolution
You want a climax to your arc, but you really need a resolution as well. That means tying up the main storyline and any sub-plots. It also means having an ending that leaves the player feeling good. Making the player hate your villain is great if they get to beat them up at the end. Making the player hate your contact is fine if they get to beat them up at the end (or somehow turn the tables on them). The player needs to end your arc feeling satisfied.
Contact and Mission Intro
- Your contact sets the tone of the arc, being the first thing the player sees and as they frame the arc. Your contact needs to have a personality and they need to impart information based on that personality. Mission intros should not be a wall of text written that just presents the mission.
- Your contract should make the hero feel heroic. This means the contact should be appropriate. An 8 year old telling the hero what to do does not go over well. An 8 year old begging for help might. Players might except an 80 year old telling the hero what to do if they do it well stand straight youngster, look me in the eye, you will go get my catgirl out of the tree if you want any cookies. It also means the contact should treat the hero with respect. Contacts should not be testing the hero, or letting them help out with unimportant missions. Players want to be the star, they want their hero to be admired.
- If the contact is a person speaking, it should be written like a person speaking including pauses, side comments, etc. Intro text need not just be speaking though it can describe what the contact does (he checks notes on his laptop), it can be ambient sounds (you hear police sirens in the distance), it can be someone other than the contact (a secretary reminds him of his meeting with the ambassador), it can be narration (as the Vanguard officer talks, you can see the drop ships flying overhead and see the bombs falling onto Steel Canyon), it can be text (an email on the computer says youll never catch me).
- The goals of the contact and mission intro are: to tell the player what to expect in the mission, to set the tone for the mission and arc, to make the player want to play the mission and continue the arc. If a player wants to complete the mission just to see what the contact has to say than you have a great contact.
- Tell the player a plot (not the details, the plot) in the first mission intro and in each mission intro (and maybe in the conclusion). The purpose of this is to make the player feel important and like there is a story they are going to see. You may know there is a story but the player does not unless you tell him. You are not telling the player what is actually going to happen, you are just giving them a plot so they believe there is a point to what they are doing.
Example: Bad mission 1: find this book for me, mission 2: take this book to Azuria, mission 3: now fight bad guy Azuria found with book. Good mission 1: find this book for me, then you will need to take it to Azuria and she will use it to find the bad guy for you to defeat. Now you can have mission 1 end with the book not being found. The plot is not progressing as expected. So in mission 2 tell a new plot find Informant, beat him up so he tells you where the book is, then get the book, take it to Azuria, etc. Even worse then a plan of Step 1: Steal Underwear, Step 3: Profit is a plan of Step 1: steal underwear.
Maps
- Rotate Tilesets
Do not use the same tileset two missions in a row if you can help it, and never three missions in a row. If you need several offices use CoH and CoV offices, make one abandoned or use a tech tileset do something so that they are different. If you really have to use the same tilesets several raids on Arachnos bases, then find an excuse to throw in a different small map (meet a contact at Mercy Dock, raid the small flyer map) to provide a break. You are creative you can find an excuse to break up the monotony.
- Use CoV Tilesets
Remember that many players only play one side, mostly heroes so using CoV tilesets may make your maps not just different in the arc, but something the player has never seen. Dont just use CoV tilesets, but explore your options, do not just use maps you are familiar with.
- Vary the Map Size
Not all missions should be huge maps, nor all small maps. In a story based arc the maps should generally be smaller given the choice. But a large map makes that mission feel a bit more epic. Unlike other details you should not stagger map sizes (small, large, small, large). Typically they should be smaller at the start and longer at the end. Do not feel that a large map is required at the end the maps serve the needs of the story.
- Use Appropriate Maps
It is tempting to use the cool looking maps because they look cool. But use the map
- Use Outdoor Maps Sparingly
Outdoor maps do not have front, middle, and back so any spawn can be anywhere. They do not channel the player, so it is hard to make sure you have been everywhere it feels more repetitive to go back and forth on an outdoor map than to run through the halls on a normal map. And outdoor maps are usually large. So finding an objective on an outdoor map is usually harder, takes longer, and is more annoying than the same objective indoors. Do not avoid using them if it is called for but consider alternatives. Tiny outdoor maps do not have these problems.
Mission Objectives
- Rotate Objectives
Rotate mission objectives. Ideally no two missions in a row have the same objective, and three missions in a row should not have the same objective. Even if the map, enemies, plot, etc are different 3 defeat boss, or 3 rescue NPCs in a row feel repetitive. Mission 1, 3, and 5 can have the same objective, just have 2 and 4 be different.
- Do Not Make All Required
It is great to add flavor objectives, do not make them all required. If you are raiding an enemy base is the goal to defeat the boss or to get information from the computer? Choose one and make that the required objective. Rarely should both be required. It is common to tack on a defeat boss when it is not really needed. The named boss can be there the player can choose whether or not to go after them. Do not try to force the player to examine and explore every detail you created. Think of them as easter eggs more fun for players who do find them.
- Do Not Use Defeat All
Players who are not farming hate defeat alls. No matter how well intentioned, you end up having to find one last minion hiding behind a crate. Whats worse is it makes the ending anti-climactic. If a player spends 15 minutes loving your mission and 5 minutes hating it while they hunt for one last minion they end the mission hating it. You are a brilliant person who can find a reason why you need to have a defeat all objective use that brilliance instead to figure out reasons why you do not need a defeat all objective. Note that tiny maps (casinos, one room caves, etc) ignore this rule. If there are only 1-5 spawns, a defeat all plays fine many players may still skip your arc when they see a defeat all though.
Mission Spawns
A minimum of 5 spawns in a mission should be custom spawns, and if there are more than 10 total spawns, half should be custom spawns. Now a custom spawn just means that it is not a standard spawn of the base enemy group standing doing their default emote. Custom spawns can have dialog, have movement, do appropriate animation, add appropriate items, or add required objectives.
- Dialog Spawns
A dialog spawn is intended to add flavor to a mission by saying dialog. This can be done through a boss spawn, a patrol, or other types. Dialog can be used to reinforce the villain plot Once we finish robbing this bank we can buy bigger guns, promote the main villain If any heroes show up, Big Bad will take care of them, or make the mission seem more real I cant find one of the secretaries, I think she is hiding.
With dialog a lot is good, but in small doses. Do not fill every dialog box a spawn can have. Keep it to the essential dialog you want them to read.
- Animation Spawns
You can usually set special spawns to do animations of your choosing. This can reinforce the feeling of a mission. If you are raiding a villain base maybe they are sitting around, listening to music, training, etc. If you are stopping a villain assault maybe they are carrying explosives or doing an aggressive animation. Animations are very effective at adding flavor to a mission without adding dialog that might clutter the screen.
- Object Spawns
Object spawns can be defendable objects, destructible objects, or clickies. Defendable and destructible objects let you have mobs around the object which can talk about it. Object spawns let you customize your maps a little with flavor items. Altars give a mystic feel to a warehouse, weapon racks give it a military feel. Put a set of medical equipment in a sewer and it looks Vahzilok are working on building more minions in their base, instead of just another sewer you walk through.
- Movement Spawns
Standard spawns stand still or move around a little. If you want enemies to show some effort, movement spawns make the mission more dynamic: patrols, ambushes, and defendable objects.
